The Salvaging of Memories

We piled out and stretched our legs after the long drive. There were some notes on the front of the house. One was in spanish and addressed to her husband, the other just said that this house is ineligible. We pondered what it might be ineligible for, FEMA, insurance, demolition. We didn't have a clue. We checked out some of the neighbors' houses. The one across the street had the front door wide open so we went in and it appears that they will rebuild. The interior was striped to bare 2x4's and nothing else. Other homes didn't appear like they had been cleaned up much, inside or out.

There were refrigerators on the curb in front of almost every house and each had its address spray painted on it. I thought that odd. Will they only pick up one refrigerator per home? Most homes had huge piles of trash in front of them but most eery was the lack of people. It was a ghost town. We saw one old man on his porch and that was it.

"L" began handing out face masks and gloves. We spent some time suiting up with our feet wrapped in plastic and making sure our heads were covered. It was decided that we would enter from the back of the house as it had less debris blocking the way. Their suburban had water lines within 2" of the roof. We opened it up and documented the condition as "L"s elderly husband was convinced it could be repaired. The phrase 'no way in hell' came to mind. It had been completely filled inside with water at some point and mold grew everywhere.

We entered into a small parlor where the piano, music, books, and videos were all a complete loss. "L" mourned over her piano which was barely standing, the wood had rotted so completely. Of the many instruments the family had collected over the years only her son's trumpet had made it thru the storm undamaged. Guitars, keyboards, the piano, a flute, drums, all gone or beyond repair. From there into her son's room, where we climbed over fallen, ruined furniture and remnants of their lives. On the wall was a undamaged poster that we removed and took with us. It was about the only thing we could salvage from his room. Next came the kitchen. The refridgerator was on its back and covered in little flies. We climbed up on counters to retrieve items put as high as possible when they left during the flooding.

"A" was the lucky one. She retrieved several items from her room. A tiarra from promo, a couple of fancy dresses that didn't get wet due to good storage techniques, some jewelry, a high school jersey that didn't seem to have too much mold on it.

The walls were all covered in mosaic patterns of mold that would have been almost pretty if it wasn't so deadly. The floors were starting to give way and we were careful where we walked and made sure not to lean on the walls since they were starting to crumble as well.

We kept having to exit the house by climbing over all the debris to drag out garbage bags of stuff we wanted to take back. That and to breathe. It wasn't a hot day and there was even a breeze but breathing our own hot breath for any amount of time was getting to us and the smell of decay and mold still leaked thru. We skipped the bathroom but I peeked at the backup of sewage in the toilet and tub. "L" said she didn't want nothing from that room. We couldn't even get into the livingroom. Someone had previously stacked all the furniture against the door and we couldn't move it. "L" said it was ok as there wasn't anything she was looking for in there anyways.

All in all it only took about 2 hours to salvage what was left of their life. I knew they both wanted to see how the rest of the city was fairing so we de-suited and disinfected and piled back into the van for a trip down Canal Street.